How he got to be so versatile in the ring: "I watch everybody. Lately I've been watching a lot of Ray Stevens, a lot of Pat Patterson, a lot of Arn Anderson, but Joey Mercury is a trainer at NXT now and he told me once, and I love this advice, he said, 'I don't work my size, don't work your size.' This weird, eclectic style I've carved out is just a combination of different people. The moonsault is a very simple thing, but it's a Shawn Michaels thing. The Alabama Slam, I feel like if anybody gets that I get it. I had to partner with the guy and we put him away. Out of respect for the team I had with him and the guy himself, I'm going to continue to do it. Then I have the great fortune of I can steal from my own family. I just take stuff I see and try to make it fit for me. I try to be somewhere in the middle because I'm not the biggest guy so I want to give the audience the fighting chance I give myself in the ring and that's through some of the little eclectic things that are probably more suited for a smaller guy. That's why I had to put knee pads on eventually, that was mandated I was told by the boss. Yeah, [I prefer to go without knee pads], I saw this picture of Buddy Rodgers and he had the WWWF championship on and he's standing there and I just thought 'that's what a wrestler looks like.' And that's what he had, the boots, no knee pads, the trunks were like a quarter of an inch higher than everybody's wearing today and I just thought 'that's what they're supposed to look like.' It never translated with me though. I have these tiny little legs so it didn't translate."

Damien Sandow: "Damien Sandow, his vernacular, how he competes, he has this style and it's kind of rooted in the old south, Carney style, but what's old is new. It's not even a character, every day he's more and more Damien Sandow than whatever the hell his real name is, I've called him everything. But to me, that commitment I really appreciate because I'm old school in how I approach sports entertainment; his commitment is wonderful. I did not want to do a tag team with anybody but I have enjoyed everything we've done together because that's a completely different facet of the industry. I'm not funny, he does certain things that I can't and makes things very fun."